Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun 130022 , P. R. China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , P. R. China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Sep 11;11(36):32720-32728. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b10713. Epub 2019 Aug 30.
Conjugated polymers (CPs) have drawn growing attention in cancer phototherapy and imaging due to their large extinction coefficients, robust photostability, and good biocompatibility. Herein, we propose a new type of photothermal therapy materials on the basis of BODIPY-diketopyrrolopyrrole CPs, where the number of methyl substituents at the β and β' positions on BODIPYs is variable, allowing us to investigate the interplay between the structure of the monomers and the related properties of CPs. Combining the experimental data with theoretical calculations, we concluded that with the decrease of the number of methyl moieties on the β and β' positions of BODIPY, the polymerization degree and the solubility of the obtained CPs improved and the polymeric spatial planarization and degrees of conjugation increased, inducing the bathochromic shift of absorption, which resulted in the absorption spectra getting closer to the near-infrared region and more conducive to the application of the conjugated polymers in vivo. Afterward, the CP nanoparticles were constructed and their photothermal activity in cancer therapy was validated by a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments. In this paper, we provide a new way to manipulate properties of CPs with great potential in photothermal therapy through structural engineering.
基于 BODIPY-二酮吡咯并吡咯 CP，我们提出了一种新型光热治疗材料，其中 BODIPY 的β 和β'位上的甲基取代基数量是可变的，这使我们能够研究单体结构与 CP 相关性质之间的相互作用。结合实验数据和理论计算，我们得出结论，随着 BODIPY 的β 和β'位上甲基数量的减少，所得到的 CP 的聚合度和溶解度提高，聚合物的空间平面化和共轭度增加，导致吸收的红移，这使得吸收光谱更接近近红外区域，更有利于共轭聚合物在体内的应用。随后，构建了 CP 纳米粒子，并通过一系列体外和体内实验验证了其在癌症治疗中的光热活性。在本文中，我们通过结构工程为 CP 的光热治疗提供了一种操纵其性能的新方法，具有很大的潜力。
